The Second Holocaust
by Exists In Theory
Summary: Alternate History - What if the Cuban Missile Crisis spiraled out of control and turned into all-out nuclear war? - A one-shot Hetalia adaptation of "The Cuban Missile Crisis: Second Holocaust." An essay originally written by Robert L. O'Connell in the What If essays of American History. Rated T for dark themes and disturbing imagery. Feel free to Read & Review.


_This is a Hetalia adaptation of an alternate history essay written by Robert L. O'Connell called "The Cuban Missile Crisis: Second Holocaust." Undoubtedly the Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest point in history a nuclear war ever came to becoming a reality, and this story explored what would've happened had a key decision by one Soviet submarine commander could've changed history for the worst._

_Disclaimer: I do not own Hetalia nor Robert L. O'Connell's work._

_**THE SECOND HOLOCAUST**_

PART I - INTRO

October 27th, 2002

New District of Columbia, Cheyenne Mountain, CO

The skies over the Rockies were unfailingly beautiful. Crystal sharp blue over white snow capped mountains gave the image of a serine ethereal paradise, an Eden in the sky. One would guess that such a timeless place would always be free of the spoils of the outside world, unless they also noticed the lack of any flora and fauna with exception of a few gnarly remains of trees decorating the mountain sides. They were dead and decayed from radioactive fallout that although had long since dissipated at these altitudes, the soil they once grew from was still contaminated and any form of life won't return to the area for decades to come. But hidden underneath one particular mountain, life is still going on.

In the underground headquarters of the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) was also the bustling new capital of the United States of America. Built along with the fortress of the U.S. military's command center, underneath a mile of solid granite, was the well protected practical and symbolic capitol where a nation now ruled itself: in impenetrable walls, isolated, and in constant communication with all its armed forces, ready to strike anywhere in a moment's notice. A setup placed after a lesson learned in a way no one should ever hope to.

In the most fortified room aside from the President's office, Alfred F. Jones stared at the opened file on his desk, his hands trembling and damaged eyes glazing with tears. He doesn't resemble the bright, handsome, and always cheerful "Hero" everyone knew and loved anymore.

Now he looked almost 100 years older than he looked, skin ghostly pale from spending years exposed to the poisoned air that enshrouded the world and due to lack of sunlight, and wrinkled form the stresses of endless crises that wore him down, body and soul. Some places were riddled with old scabs and sores from the fallout he suffered. He still possessed his inhuman strength, but it strained him too much physically and emotionally to use it. The most telling feature of his transformed self was the metal plating to this skull, visible to anyone. A bullet-to-the-brain-like injury he sustained in the nuclear destruction of what was once the old capitol where he never truly recovered, and made him as the dishonored and broken man of a nation he is today, as one could see in his now deep dark voids of eyes: broken, wrought with guilt, paranoid, amnesiac, alone, and sad.

But today he is worse than ever, he is unsure whether if it is from the fact that today is the 40th anniversary since…._it_ happened, his injuries flaring up from the shear memory of them, or from anxiety; anxiety from how the American people and the world at large will react to the findings of the Danforth Commission, the file set before him.

It had been classified top secret ever since its completion in 1972, chartered by what was left of the surviving government and Alfred himself; an endeavor of groundbreaking work done by historians, military members of his and other countries, archeologists, climatologists, physicists, doctors, and countless other specialists who worked tirelessly to piece together what happened during those fateful last days of October 1962 and their aftermath. In doing so they had to overcome enormous holes literally burned into the evidence and fabric of history, pursuing clues that endangered their lives. Alfred too had to dig deep past physical, emotional, and psychological agony to learn the truth of what he had done, losing some of his memory due to the damage inflicted on him.

He and the country as a whole owed a great debt to the Commission. Together, they produced the document that now lay before him, soon to be made public after a final ruling from the Supreme Court. This report will explain to the best of what was found to the American people and the entire world how and why history took such a tragic turn, hoping to remove the veil of shame and suspicion that lingers to this day.

A silent sob escaped him as he lost what will he had left to hold in all the guilt his heart held every single day since October 28th 1962. The full details of what he feared happened finally made clear to him since he just finished reading the official report, the passages filling in blanks in his memory causing them to rush back as terrifying flashbacks, breaking him down further seeing the scope his atrocity. And now it was to be released to the world, and will undoubtedly be printed in the empty pages of the history books left from the darkest chapter of human civilization.

And he will be forever remembered, and condemned, for writing that chapter when one wrong move off the coast of Cuba would cause a chain reaction, and lead him to commit the largest, bloodiest, deadliest, and most horrifying act of nuclear slaughter the world would ever see…

PART II – CAUSATION

Alfred's understanding of Ivan Braginsky's motives for deploying nuclear forces to Carlos Machado's Cuba have changed. At the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, it was understood by America and his allies as an offensive move aimed to threaten the American people by establishing a foothold in the Western Hemisphere to begin an eventual Soviet domination. The USSR was seen as an aggressive and hostile superpower intent on global control through the spread of communism directly or indirectly, as evidence by Ivan's popular phrase: "all shall be made whole with Russia" by those who knew him, disdainful of Alfred's political will, and recklessly determined to gain a psychological advantage over his arch-nemesis.

However, later revelations point to this a huge misunderstanding. Evidence suggested that Ivan's and then Soviet Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev's motives, however misguided, were defensive and on two different sets of concerns. First were reports that the Soviet leadership saw Carlos Machado's Cuban revolution as the first example of a people willingly accepting communism and were determined to protect it from a feared impending American invasion thought to happen after the failure of the Bay of Pigs, thinking America would try again than lose face.

Second, and most importantly, it was apparent to Ivan that not only was Alfred far ahead of him in Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile systems and nuclear stockpiles, but that Alfred was fully aware of his advantage and, accordingly, flaunted it like the egomaniac he was.

It is estimated that by spring of 1962 the Soviets had less than 25 operational ICBMs and fewer than 500 nuclear weapons, the majority of them built for missile-launchers and bomber aircraft that did not have the range to reach the continental U.S.

By contrast, the U.S. nuclear strike force was unparalleled: 174 Atlas and Titan ICBMs, 105 Jupiter and Thor IRBMs (Intermediate-Range Ballistic Missiles), 8 Ethan Allen and George Washington-class ballistic missile submarines with 16 Polaris IRBMs each; along with an entire fleet of over 1,500 B-47 Stratojets, B-52 Stratofortresses, and B-58 Hustler jet bombers each carrying dozens of 1-to-24 megaton bombs- a grand total of 3,500 nuclear weapons…all of them deliverable to within the borders of the USSR.

Since this information was open for anyone to see (again, America flaunting), it can be assumed than the Soviets clearly understood they were beyond outmatched.

It was in this context that Ivan and Khrushchev decided in the spring of 1962 to quickly and quietly deploy 42 SS-4 medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBMs) with a range of 1,200 miles and a dozen more SS-5 IRBMs with longer ranges to Cuba (most of which would never reach their destination as the ships that carried them would be later sunk before they could be identified).

From Ivan's perspective, this was a dangerous but exciting idea. In one swift move he could've ensured the Carlos's revolution's success and shift the nuclear balance of power between him and America with doubling the amount of his missiles reaching America's shores, each of them with the ability to strike American targets within minutes, more than enough of a threat to level the nuclear playing field. Of course, he must've known the risk that when Alfred discovered this move, it would be seen as a challenge to his dominion of the Western Hemisphere, but this fear was countered by the fact that the U.S. already had Jupiter missiles deployed in Turkey along the Soviet's land borders, posing the same threat to Moscow as Cuba did to Washington DC. So that's why he wanted to keep in secret until the missile launching sites in Cuba were fully operational so when Alfred did find out, it would be far too late to do anything about removing them.

On the surface this seemed like a well thought out plan, but a look into the Soviet's nuclear deployment procedures told otherwise…and led to disaster.

The Soviet MRBMs arrived in Cuba with a massive support structure: a cadre of 25,000 ground troops to defend the island and construct the missile bases and infrastructure, multiple SA-2 surface-to-air missile (SAM) batteries, a variety of Soviet frontline combat aircraft like IL-28 light bombers, 100 tactical cruise missiles along with 6 unguided Frog rockets, and a naval contingent of small patrol boats and four 641-class diesel-electric submarines, and to top it off, they brought over 100 nuclear warheads ( 1/5th of the USSR's total stockpile) for the SS-4/5s, Frog rockets, cruise missiles, light bombers, and fatally, one nuclear torpedo for each submarine.

To make matters worse, the Soviet nuclear launch authority was terrifyingly faulted. Control from Moscow to the SS-4/5 missiles was conducted by KGB elements in Cuba, which was credible at best. Unfortunately, no such command structure existed for tactical weapons release, which meant that a single field commander on land, sea, or air could use those bombs on his own authority. More than any other factor, it was this faulty procedure that would bring about the war to come.

PART III – ROAD TO WAR

On October 14th, 1962, an American U-2 reconnaissance aircraft first photographed the MRBM sites being readied at San Cristobal. Shortly after, President John F. Kennedy and Alfred F. Jones assembled a body of advisors to plan how to deal with this situation, and if need be, prep the National Command Authority.

The key members of this group were Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, the president's brother and attorney general Robert Kennedy, the secretary of state Dean Rusk, undersecretary of state George Ball, recent U.S. ambassador to the USSR Llwellyn Thompson, secretary of defense Robert McNamara, Roswell Gilpatric, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff Maxwell Taylor, assistant defense secretary Paul Nitze, secretary of the treasury Douglas Dillon, National Security Assistant McGeorge Bundy, the president's speechwriter Theodore Sorensen, former secretary of state Dean Acheson, the director of the CIA John McCone, new ambassador to France Charles Bohlen, and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Adlai Stevenson.

They were all male, none a member of Congress, nor were any representatives of NATO present, and all were hostile to the USSR. Tragically, all except for Jones, Bohlen, and Stevenson, would be dead in the next 2 weeks. It is from the firsthand knowledge of these 3 alone that the membership's actions and very existence is known. Unfortunately, time and circumstances restricted their questioning. Ambassador Bohlen only attended the opening meetings before heading off to Paris to begin his ambassadorship duties.

Ambassador Stevenson knew much of the activities but died in 1965 before the Commission began, though he did leave a long manuscript on his recollection of events leading up to the war. He was horrified by the outlook and conduct the President's and Alfred's advisors, complaining bitterly that when he proposed giving up their base in Guantanamo and withdrawing the IRBMs from Turkey in exchange for the removal of the Soviet's missiles in Cuba, he was reviled as an appeaser if not a traitor, even by Alfred himself who curtly retorted that he "would not chicken out over a few dozen missiles on my doorstep when I can just stomp them on the spot, which was why we have been set up in Turkey to begin with."

Stevenson lamented: "This was a group more determined to make a point to avoid a nuclear war."

Yet the evidence points out that they weren't as 'reckless'. It seems their general outlook become less aggressive as the crisis played out. Three options were considered: air strikes to destroy the missiles, an invasion of Cuba, or a naval "quarantine" (actually a blockade, but since blockades constituted an act of war under international law, this euphemism was used). After much debate, the least destructive of the three was chosen and the quarantine of Cuba was ordered. Nonetheless, plans were made should push come to shove, bringing forth Operational Plans 312 (air campaign), 314 (blockade), and 316 (invasion).

President Kennedy delivered his famous televised speech informing the American people of the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba on the evening of October 22nd, and the naval interdiction was carried out to reverse the buildup. All U.S. forces around the world were set to Defense Condition (DEFCON) 3, to prepare for war should the USSR decide to try their luck against the blockade.

The next few days seemed to point towards a peaceful resolution of the crisis. Ivan found little support for his actions and Alfred's intensive diplomatic campaign brought his European allies and the Organization of American States solidly behind him against Carlos and Ivan. Then, at a meeting at the UN Security Council on October 25th, Alfred confronted everyone who doubted him, and particularly Ivan who would still do anything to deny his little operation, even when Alfred produced the U-2 photos of Ivan and Carlos's people building the launch sites. Diplomatically cornered, Ivan might've gone on the defensive and stand down, but his intentions were made clear the day before when two Soviet transport ships, _Gagarin_ and _Komiles_, stopped dead in the water before approaching the U.S. Navy Task Force 136 lead by the aircraft carrier _USS Randolph_. Afterwards, it was reported that 20 of the closest Soviet ships closest to the blockade had either stopped or turned around. Collectively, Alfred and the world breathed a sigh of relief, thinking the Soviets knew the consequences after all, but that was just an illusion.

On October 26th, the White House announced on the basis of U-2 overflights, that rather than signs of dismantlement, showed signs of accelerated construction, intending to ready the launch sites as soon as practical. Yet it is also apparent that intense diplomatic efforts were being made through official and unofficial channels to head off a confrontation. On the same day of the White House announcement, Ivan had written Alfred a public letter offering to remove the missiles from Cuba in exchange for doing the same for Alfred's Jupiter IRBMs in Turkey, along with a formal promise to not invade Cuba. Though Ivan seemed to give Alfred a much better offer than was publicly known.

Apparently, the human embodiment of the Soviet Union had written Alfred through a private communication the same day. Unfortunately, Alfred would never speak of what was in that letter after what happened next, although Stevenson speculated it as a long, rambling, and highly emotional, but nonetheless clearly stating a willingness to eliminate the missiles from the island country for a simple promise not to invade; along with some hope of friendship or even yearning to be his greatest friend and greatest enemy.

Whether or not something more was going on between Alfred and Ivan, and if the proposals would've steered the two superpowers away from impending catastrophe, we will never know. With the miscalculations of subordinates and disastrous operational procedures on the Soviet side almost immediately seized the initiative, and pushed the two antagonists over the brink…

PART IV – THE TWO DAYS' WAR

Saturday, October 27th, 1962, began unpromising and ended…with a lack of a better word: catastrophically. Bad news came in avalanches.

First, it was learned that a U-2 spy plane gathering data on nuclear testing over the North Pole had strayed into Soviet airspace and was never heard from again. Worse news came when another U-2 on a reconnaissance mission over Cuba was shot down by a Soviet SAM battery, killing its pilot, Major Rudolf Anderson. Why this was done and exactly who was responsible has never been resolved, but it was a part of local Soviet commanders taking matters into their own hands. And this mindset took history on a turn for the worst….

At 1343 hours Eastern Standard Time, two destroyers of Task Force 136, _USS Blandy_ and _USS Domado_, picked up on their sonars a Soviet submarine approximately 12 miles south of the island of Andros, moving towards the aircraft carrier _Randolph_. We know from 2nd Captain Lev Dubivko, who survived the sinking of his submarine later that day in the waters south of Cuba, that the boat in question was _B-130_, one of four 641-class Soviet subs in the area and commanded by Captain Anatoli Shumkov. When _B-130_ moved to within 12,000 yards of the _Randolph, Blandy _and_ Domado _maneuvered to intercept, the former dropping practice depth charges they had. "Solely as a warning", it was later maintained by the ship's commanding officer, Lt. Cmdr. James O. Robinson* (from his deposition at Portsmouth Naval Prison later that year). Whatever the intent, _B-130_ surfaced shortly afterward.

Then, at 1412 hours, it happened.

A huge explosion engulfed the _USS Randolph_ and within minutes formed a characteristic and all-dreaded mushroom cloud.

Alfred, from his secret bunker under Washington DC, felt the explosion rock him to his core, a bright flash of light going off in his mind as he saw, heard, and felt in horror as 2,000 of his fellow American servicemen were vaporized, screaming and convulsing in searing pain; then stopped as quickly as it started, in shock of what he felt, and then of what he had feared would happen just happened.

Since _Randolph_ was steam powered and no nuclear weapons were registered onboard, it was quickly deduced that the explosion was not an accident but rather from a hostile act. _B-130_ had fired a 53-58 nuclear torpedo. It was learned from 2nd Captain Dubivko that Soviet submarine captains had the final authority to fire tactical nuclear weapons if their hulls were breached. Whether or not if this was the case with _B-130_, as highly doubtful since the ships were miles apart and no shots were fired before the torpedo, but it will never be known since _B-130_ was quickly sunk by the two American destroyers.

After what Alfred felt and the two destroyers confirmed on their priority call to Command, there was no doubt to Washington that the _Randolph_ was sunk by a Soviet nuclear torpedo, and the reaction was almost immediate.

At 1426, Kennedy declared DEFCON 2 and gave the order to "Execute Operational Plans 312 and 316", immediate air strikes (using conventional bombs) to eliminate Soviet missile bases at San Cristobal, Sagua la Grande, and Remedios, along with the air defenses. Meanwhile, while preparations for Plan 316 were still in progress, the operation would be limited to paradrops of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions, along with amphibious landings by ten battalions of U.S. Marines in ships off the northwestern coasts of Cuba, operations that later events slowly overtook.

Tragically, yet again, Soviet commanders on the ground took matters into their own hands over the uses of nuclear weapons. After extensive research into the Red Army's command-and-control patterns, either Generals Issa Pliyev or Igor Statsenko are responsible for EVERYTHING that followed.

As the first waves of U.S. Air Force F-100 and F-101 fighter/bombers swept in from the north, a barrage of four Soviet nuclear-armed Frogs were fired at Guantanamo, obliterating the base and wiping out the 2nd Marine Division. This was shortly followed by the launch of two nuclear-tipped cruise missiles in the general direction of the Marine ships offshore. They each missed by over a mile, but still set off explosions that swamped several ships. All of this Alfred felt as his servicemen died in the blasts, convulsing him burning areas of his flesh as if he were there.

Much worse would yet come. The initial U.S. tactical airstrikes were highly destructive, but a few of the bombs failed dropped over San Cristobal failed to detonate, leaving two SS-4s and their launch sites intact. Once again, Soviet commanders tragically exercised their release authority.

During the lull for the 2nd wave of U.S airstrikes, Soviet personnel had managed to not only prepare two missiles for launch but also obtained two nuclear warheads for them, mounted them to the rockets, and finished arming them.

At or around 1610, the first missile was launched. It impacted about 8 minutes later in an empty rural field in northern Kentucky, 42 miles short of Cincinnati, but its warhead malfunctioned and did not go off. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for the second missile, which was launched at 1618, just seconds before the 2nd wave of Air Force bombers destroyed the launch site.

But it was too late.

At 1625 hours and 31 seconds EST, approximately 2,000 feet above the Lincoln Memorial, the second missile detonated.

Alfred F. Jones, though protected under miles of granite, felt the full force of that one act as if it were inside his skull. His right temple blasted in a flash of light and bits of gore as the mind of his body and country is completely destroyed.

The resulting thermonuclear blast, estimated with a yield of 640-kilotons or 40x's Hiroshima, leveled everything within 1.5 miles of ground zero, including the White House, the State Department, and the Pentagon, killing in the process, President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Vice President Lyndon Bane Johnson, the entire National Command Authority, and over 200,000 men, women, and children.

His scream and the screams of all those people were felt around the entire planet in that one instant. Almost every nation stopped or awoke in agony as they felt the scream of America and of some their own visiting citizens and ambassadors to the city as they cried out in terror, and suddenly disappear as vapor. It is unknown and will forever remain unknown if Ivan ever felt that scream.

Strategically, this unsanctioned preemptive strike may have decapitated the U.S. government and military, but it sealed the doom of the Soviet Union.

Had President Kennedy survived and remained in control, and had Alfred not suffered the agony and destruction to his mind, he would've retaliated in a measured but judicious manner. But now, with no reasonable commander in place, with something as dear to him as his own people and most of his mind destroyed, with in its place primal rage and feral vengeance in total control of him, nothing would stop Alfred F. Jones from unleashing every single ounce of the destructive power, second only to gods, he as a country held on Ivan Braginsky and his Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. And so, the entire Single Integrated Operations Plan (SIOP) would be executed against the USSR, without restraint, without regard of consequences, and without mercy.

The SIOP evolved slowly and in obscurity during the 50s and the early 60s, driven mostly by targeting policy. As new American nuclear weapons and delivery systems were developed, Soviet targets were found for them, until they numbered literally in the thousands, and some even overlapping one another. When the Kennedy administration took office, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara expressed something close to terror at its implications. On June 16th 1962, during a speech, he first publicly stressed the need for a "damage limitation" strategy. Yet, by the time the crisis happened, nothing workable was put into place. Thus on October 27th, the full-blown SIOP was still in effect, a terrible instrument of retribution some dared to equate as "apocalyptic".

There ensued a lull of 25 minutes during which General Thomas Powers, head of the Strategic Air Command (SAC) struggled to learn of what happened in Washington, and if the NCA was defunct. At 1652, Alfred Jones, despite in a daze of losing blood and brain matter and blinded by rage, successfully made contact with Powers via radio and confirmed to him that the District of Columbia had been destroyed by a nuclear blast and was Soviet in origin, and that the NCA is gone.

What Alfred said next would forever condemn him:

"It was Braginsky, and the rest of the Soviets. FUCKING KILL THEM ALL!"

It was all the authority Powers needed to be granted to assume DEFCON 1, Nuclear warfare in effect, so he sent out the order to all SAC elements across the globe to initiate the SIOP.

22 minutes later, General Powers and Alfred Jones were put into contact via telephone with John W. McCormack. The Speaker of the House was at his weekend home in Boston, he had been located, and as per the chain of succession, was sworn in as the 36th President of the United States. When Alfred informed him of his order to Powers, McCormack replied: "Johnny and Lyndon are dead. You did what you had to."

Meanwhile, the Soviets had failed to initiate further attacks. The status of communications between Moscow and their forces in Cuba were very much in doubt. They were most likely unaware that _B-130_ had torpedoed the _Randolph_ or that Washington was destroyed with the possible exception of Ivan if he felt the deaths of his countrymen in Cuba or of his embassy in Washington. But Ivan and his country had run out of time.

Within minutes of Powers' order, 35 of the 42 pre-fueled Atlases and Titans along with 14 Jupiters and Thors stationed in Turkey had successfully launched. 8 minutes later, the first of these IRBMs, each armed with 4-megaton W-49 warheads, began impacting in and around Moscow, Leningrad, and several specific military targets, paralyzing the national command-and-control system and its ability to coordinate a response. Strategically, the war had already been won by the U.S.A., but the punishment had only just begun.

There was no further contact with Ivan Braginsky or the Soviet government beyond this point, as his mind fell out of connection with the rest of the embodied nations of the world.

About 25 minutes after the IRBMs from Turkey, the first of the Atlas and Titan ICBMs from the mainland United States and Europe, also armed with W-49 warheads, began hitting a broad range of civilian and military targets. Over the next 90 minutes, 63 more ICBMs and 70 more Thors and Jupiters arrived and detonated over their targets. Of the total number of missiles fired, 7 of them malfunctioned catastrophically at or near their points of departure, creating serious nuclear contamination problems at IRBM bases in England and Italy. Feliciano Vargas and Arthur Kirkland were seriously stricken ill and suffered burn damage from the malfunctioning launches since they were near population centers.

Next in order of appearance were the manned bombers of the Strategic Air Command, 1/8th of which had been kept airborne in rotating cycles in the event of a first strike and to shorten distances and time to their targets. About half an hour after the initiation of the SIOP, a flight of B-47E Stratojets, each armed with multiple 9-megaton Mk 53 gravity bombs, crossed over into Cuban airspace and laid down a path of thermonuclear destruction on the island country. Carlos Machado, like Ivan, disappeared from the embodied nations' link and was never seen or heard from again. Before the Two Days' War's end, 41 nuclear bombs would be dropped on Cuba, ultimately killing 95% of its population (6.95 million people), and creating serious radioactive fallout problems for southern Florida, the Bahamas, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, the Leeward Islands, and the entire Caribbean Sea at large. The incomplete and beaten Soviet manned Cuban air defenses managed to shoot down just four B-47s before collapsing in the devastation.

The PVO Strany elements and the Soviet Air Force charged with defending the skies over the Soviet Union didn't fare much better with thwarting the SAC bombers that arrived 2.5 hours after the ICBMs in the form of 63 supersonic B-58 Hustlers. Their command-and-control already shattered and their SAMs and Interceptors designed for slower airborne targets, Soviet air defenses were virtually helpless up against the Mach 2 Hustlers flying at 70,000 feet and carrying either a single Mk-53 or up to 5 single-megaton B-43s, and with most airbases destroyed, the interceptors ran out of fuel and crashed, thus leaving the skies of the USSR completely defenseless against what came next. "Redundant target servicing," or simply overkill, began to emerge horrifically with the arrival of 242 B-52 Stratofortress heavy bombers.

After releasing their AGM-28 Hound Dog supersonic cruise missiles against preprogrammed locations and with the Soviet Air Force completely defeated, many bombers spent the next several hours wondering the Russian heartland unopposed in fruitless search of viable remaining targets for their Mk-41 and B-53 gravity bombs. To their credit, plenty of crews returned home without having to drop a single bomb, but in all too many instances some just detonated them over random areas with little to no strategic importance like small villages or farmlands, just to add more thermonuclear fuel to the fire.

The situation was much the same along the outer limits of the country. Over a period of 13 hours after the beginning of hostilities, 5 of the U.S. Navy's ballistic missile submarine fleet launched their Polaris A-1s and A-2s against Soviet targets along its shorelines. Many malfunctioned- the _USS Patrick Henry_ was lost with all hands when one missile detonated before it could be ejected- but over 50 detonated at or near their targets, obliterating coastal targets along the Baltic and Barents seas, the Black Sea, and in the Pacific.

Meanwhile, an armada of B-47s and tactical-attack aircraft went after Soviet ground force concentrations all across Eastern Europe, and going after military targets of Warsaw Pact countries. East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, and Yugoslavia were all militarily decimated within hours. Of all the cataclysmic destruction being rained down on the Eastern Bloc by America, only Hungary was spared any kind of nuclear destruction; most speculate that it was because of Elizabeta Héderváry's revolt against Ivan Braginsky and his resulting brutal Soviet occupation of 1956. Either way, this brief moment of mercy would do nothing to stop the death, destruction, and hatred to follow.

At the end of what should've been the only day of the war, the Soviet Union and its allies have been subjected to over 950 nuclear blasts, damage incomparably greater than what was necessary to smash them below the threshold of functioning opponents let alone functioning countries. It seemed like this overpowered one-sided war might be over, but even in defeat, Soviet commanders take tactical command of nuclear release to deliver two more small yet nuclear blows to the continental United States. And thus, these faulty release procedures will not leave until their implications doom the USSR again to another volley of murderous retribution.

At approximately 2200 hours a 611 AV-class Soviet ballistic missile submarine (probably _B-67_) surfaced 55 miles east of Virginia Beach and over the next 20 minutes launched two R-11FM missiles (the naval equivalent to a Scud) in the direction of the Norfolk naval complex. Both overshoot their target- one detonated in open country north of Fort Pickett, and the other hitting Sussex, Virginia. The submarine's captain probably received word of hostilities and was carrying out a pre-assigned mission, but this still remains a mystery as the sub was sunk shortly after the missiles were fired by coastal defenses.

Together, both blasts killed about 6,000 people, but it was more than enough for Alfred to feel the searing pain and horror of his fellow Americans dying in nuclear fire, and lead him and his military commanders to conclude that the USSR is still dangerous.

Thus the stage was set for the secondary strikes of October 28th and the delivery of 370 more nuclear weapons, all but a few into Russia. Many targets already obliterated were "reserviced" like destroying the already burning suburbs and outskirts of major towns or cities. But a new and ominous tactic emerged: A great number of the weapons were detonated in the heavily timbered areas of central and western Siberia with the intention of setting off huge forest firestorms across the taiga; and the targeting of the oil/coal-rich lands of southwestern and central Russia, hoping to ignite oil reservoirs above and below ground to cause huge underground coal seam fires that could be perpetually sustained within the vast natural networks of petroleum in the region, to burn Russia above and below ground. Of all the excesses committed by the U.S. forces during the Two Days' War, this one was the most inexcusable, and this one would have dire aftereffects for the post-war environment. If anything can be said for this wanton act of mega-arson, was that this was the final military action of the 30 hour drama. All U.S. intelligence sources unanimously concluded from observations that the Soviet Union has been completely and utterly destroyed. All forces reported no signs of resistance for many hours and very little signs of life remaining.

At last at 2300 hours EST on Sunday, October 28th, 1962, satisfied that America's greatest enemy was no more, President McCormack declared a ceasefire and order all U.S. forces to return to their home bases, and Defense Condition 5 in effect, with no further threats imminent, thus ending the deadliest war in human history.

Alfred Jones finally sheathed his nuclear sword and yelled a roar of victory, his vengeance gained in a fiery blaze of glory, but the pain he felt of his dead and dying Americans dragged him down from going further. And dragging him down more as his rage-clouded mind returned to him was the realization of what he has done, and what will happen to the world ever afterward.

PART V – AFTERMATH

For the rest of the world, the initial response was relief that the conflict was over so quickly and did not spread across the globe. The United States had lost over a quarter of a million people, halves of 2 states have been rendered uninhabitable, and its capitol city gone, but the country as a whole emerged basically intact, and the magnitude of the death and destruction suffered by the Soviet Union and its allies was incomprehensible to any human mind save a few. Otherwise, the world escaped from an all-out nuclear war unscathed. Unfortunately this judgment was almost entirely based on ignorance and within a few weeks after the end of hostilities, did the horrific reality of nuclear warfare finally unveil its true nature.

The first to suffer was Japan, who for the 2nd time in 17 years was victimized by the effects of nuclear fallout when prevailing southwesterly winds delivered clouds of very heavy radiation from the Vladivostok area. In November of 1962, Honda Kiku and the majority of the Japanese population were stricken deathly ill from having the collective clouds of all of 1,300 nuclear blasts drift over from Asia towards the Pacific. Cancer rates skyrocketed and food/fishing production plummeted from receiving contamination levels from 50-400 roentgens a day in open air, and Acute Radiation Sickness become an epidemic (see Japanese ARS Epidemic of 1962-63) that would eventually claim 50% of the population (or 48 million people).

Years later, the entire Japanese Home Islands were to be depopulated as the country itself became uninhabitable, and would remain so for hundreds if not thousands of years. An entire culture and race of people once again brought to ruin and desolation from America. Though Alfred offered to open his borders to Honda's people seeing the aftereffects were of his doing, but Honda venomously refused to "share a land that destroyed mine twice", and instead had what was left of his country relocate to Canada in what was the largest mass-relocation seen.

Europe, due to generally easterly winds, escaped this initial fate, but dramatically elevated radiation levels were soon reported in China, the Indian subcontinent, across the Middle East, and into eastern Africa. Of course, this was only the beginning.

The near-simultaneous explosion of 1,300 nuclear devices had thrown over 100 million tons of fine radioactive dust high into the upper atmosphere. This mass was combined with the several hundred million ton-pall of smoke, soot, and ash from urban, forest, and oil field firestorms that continued to burn for almost an entire year afterward. The combined radioactive dust and fire-churned remains thrown into the stratosphere formed a cloud that by December had enshrouded the entire Northern Hemisphere between 30 and 60 degrees latitude. Eventually the cloud spread into the Southern Hemisphere via the equatorial trade winds.

By January 1st, 1963, the entire planet was covered by the radioactive ash cloud, and literally became humanity's darkest times. Even more so in the Northern Hemisphere where light from the Sun was reflected back into space, thus cutting sunlight reaching the Earth's surface to 50%, turning high noon into an eerie twilight. And since the nuclear exchange took place in the onset of winter in the north, the winter of 62-63 became the coldest ever recorded, with temperature averages dropping below those experienced during the Year Without A Summer, 150 years prior.

The so-called nuclear winter caused wide-spread fear and panic that the condition could be permanent and some scientists predicted that a new Ice Age was inevitable. Thankfully, the dust cloud dissipated during the summer of 1963, though at the cost of increased radiation levels all across the globe. In the end, the most serious consequences of the nuclear winter were the absence of spring and summer in the Northern Hemisphere, the worldwide grinding halt of air travel due to the hazards of the cloud, and the resultant drop in food production, setting off huge famines in India and China, and serious food shortages in Europe and North America.

By the fall of 1963, the return from Russia by Chinese and European reconnaissance parties confirmed what become fearfully apparent the previous year when all attempts to contact anyone still alive in Russia failed: the Soviet Union had not only been crushed militarily, it had suffered something close to utter extermination.

Only very few survivors were encountered every few hundred miles, and were brought out of the USSR, and the scope of the suffering were seen from the broken souls unfortunate enough to have survived the thermonuclear bombardment.

The embodied nations of Ukraine, Katyusha, and Belarus, Natalia Arlovskaya, were among those found and rescued. Brought out for the entire world to see the effectiveness and ruthlessness of America's retribution, everyone wept and recoiled in terror at what was left of the most beautiful woman/nation.

Natalia, her platinum blonde hair gone and scalp blistered and skin hanging like leaflets from burns and radiation poisoning, fingers and flesh missing and maggot-ridden, eyes distorted from cataracts and flashblindedness, carried with her the charred stump of torso and head of what was once the voluptuous body of her sister Katyusha, her skin charred to a crusty black leather, her once soft and bountiful breasts gone, exposing her fried internal organs, her eye sockets pools of fluid from her melted eyes. The most horrifying thing was not the sight, but upon closer inspection, could discern a very shallow breathing, that she was still alive in what was left of her body, her breath as close to a scream of agony as her burned vocal cords would allow. Ivan Braginsky's body was never found.

Even the nations of Eastern Europe, whose civilian populations have been spared, suffered immediate casualties from the fallout, ranging from 15 to 30%. The embodied nations of Eastern Europe survived but were all severely injured or near-death, Giruberuto Bairushumitto of East Germany and Ferikusu Ukashevichi of Poland emerged with all limbs intact but skin melting off, muttering incoherently as if sobbing as their minds had been broken from the sheer display of death and destruction rained on them. Romania and Bulgaria were found but were catatonic from the shock and destruction, but awoke screaming in fear at the mere sight of Alfred, trying to craw and run from him.

Death and destruction in the USSR was far worse, akin to Cuba's. Of the initial population of 233 million, it was estimated that around only 80 million were still alive when the war stopped. About 2/3s of that number would succumb to starvation, disease, anarchy, and exposure to the radioactive fallout and extreme cold from the resultant winter. In the end, less than 10% of Russia's population would survive, but would be left in a hostile landscape with nonexistent governance reduced to below 3rd world conditions, let alone be called a country, and with the effect of sterilization as part of radiation poisoning, the people of Russia would eventually fade into extinction.

During the winter of 63-64, the term Second Holocaust was first applied to the conflict, with Alfred F. Jones and his United States now being seen as malefactor rather than victim by people around the world. This trend would slowly gain momentum until Alfred and America was virtually shunned from the global community.

Early on, Alfred was preoccupied thoroughly with his country's own misfortune. The seat of national government and many of its functions were annihilated as evidenced from the repair needed to his head, and reestablishing order and coherence in the face of a collapsing food supply proved an impossible task, having to resort to martial law in many places. Elsewhere, He was seen as callous and self-absorbed, but in his own eyes he was struggling as a nation for survival.

To his eternal credit, President McCormack rose to the emergency to heal his country, discharging the office with a wisdom and dignity that rightfully earned him the universal name Grandfather John. But at age 72, he had easily been the oldest man ever to assume the U.S. presidency, and the unrelenting wave after wave of crises he took on as the country struggled through recovery left him ill, aged far beyond his years, and held no desire to try for a second term.

The presidential campaign of 1964 was waged in the shadow of brewing world hostility against the United States, pitted two pre-war veterans, Senator Henry M. Jackson and ex-vice president Richard M. Nixon, against one another. Neither candidate admitted or was willing to admit to any measure of guilt for the war, it was Nixon who exploited that mindset and won the election with his famous "nothing to be ashamed of" speech.

The passage of time may partially clear the image and name of the Alfred's time with the Nixon administration, but very little good came out of his presidency. In essence, Alfred was driven by political expediency, choosing to satisfy short-term domestic agendas over that sought to take into account the wishes and hopes of the global community. This short-sightedness inevitably lead towards America's isolation.

Most notable was Alfred's barely concealed contempt for the global movement of total nuclear disarmament, and refusing to participate in the 1966 Geneva Convention for the Abolition of Nuclear Armaments, a decision that left Alfred F. Jones a minority of one.

This status was confirmed by Nixon's decision to rebuild the nuclear stockpile that was spent during the Two Days' War, to continue the development of solid-fueled Minuteman ICBMs, and prioritize the development of a ballistic missile defense system. These moves were mainly aimed at reassuring the American people, with undeniably had be the target of a recent nuclear attack, but they shocked the world with the cold-blooded action.

Anti-American sentiment became a global phenomenon, demonstrations in unprecedented size taking place every day in almost every industrialized country. Alfred, in rage, loneliness, sadness, and betrayal, denounced all of his once beloved friends as they all called him a 'murderer' or 'the devil' or 'evil incarnate'.

Francis Bonnefy struck the worst blow when he said in tear-filled rage in French: "You are no hero; you are no different than what you swore to destroy. You are a god-damn slaughterer!"

It wasn't long until NATO collapsed in 1967 when all European members withdrew, the last and the most painful of which was England, who, although was America's best friend, could not look him in the eye knowing that he had a connection with him and with what he had done, and so in a mixture of sadness and anger, broke off all contact with him.

Soon, a movement to expel the United States from the UN swept the General Assembly, along with cries to have Alfred Jones stand trial before Interpol for his crime against humanity.

This movement is what finally drove America over the edge and, playing on domestic outrage, in a televised speech with Nixon on January 23rd, 1968, renounced membership and ordered all UN elements and ambassadors out of New York City, only to learn too late that this was a mistake.

By declaring the 1968 presidential election a "referendum on national security" Nixon drew a line that was challenged by Democratic candidate Eugene J. McCarthy, an advocate of "global reconciliation and healing." McCarthy's victory, by an unprecedented 76% of the popular vote, made it clear that the American people believed that Nixon had done the wrong thing turned isolation into national exile.

On the eve of the 1972 elections, at the time the Commission was written, President McCarthy's record remains a mixed one. The United States managed to reestablish diplomatic relations with 24 countries and also assumed an "observational" status in the UN, offering to take up full membership if and when those resolutions dealing with war guilt and reparations are dropped.

The American scientific community, with massive support from the U.S. government, has assumed a leading role in the global nuclear decontamination effort, though at the cost of drawing resources from other scientific programs including the now defunct space program which just was about to kick off when the Two Days' War broke out, but with things the way they are now, Kennedy's dream of "flying to the moon" was indefinitely postponed.

American agriculture is once again producing bountiful harvests, which are being systematically given out for free to what are now termed the Victim States. Alfred would never forget the image of Ukraine's and Belarus's burned bodies and the looks of sheer terror on the faces of everyone in the Eastern Bloc, but his offerings of peace to help feed their populations were slowly healing them and he hoped beyond hope that someday he could be forgiven, even if they never will.

U.S. international trade is growing once again, and now participating in the deliberations of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

However, President McCarthy's record is less positive on the issue of nuclear disarmament. Unilateral reductions of the American strategic arsenal and offers to enter negotiations aimed at an eventual "zero option" has fallen on deaf ears in the Geneva Conventions. Among state parties, there is no option but the treaty itself and the immediate renunciation and disarmament it entails. This position is undoubtedly founded on the belief that America is responsible for the outbreak and consequences of the Two Days' War.

After viewing the evidence in the greatest detail, it is the opinion of the Danforth Commission that this is far from the case on this 'who fired first?' debate. The United States only responded after being fired upon as per the rules of engagement, and suffered from nuclear attacks by Soviet forces with the sinking of the _USS Randolph_, the tactical use of nuclear weapons, and the destruction of its government and capitol city, Washington DC.

It is true however, that due to planning and accident rather than intent, that the United States over-reacted and retaliated against the Soviet Union with force far exceeding what was necessary to militarily defeat them. It must be admitted that America, through his actions, directly and indirectly caused the deaths of over 264,000,000 people, thus committing nothing short of genocide, and the use of the term "Second Holocaust" is not ill-fitting.

Clearly and undeniably, this tragic consequence was the direct result of the accumulation of nuclear weapons and their delivery systems. Nuclear war is in any shape or form, unsustainable, and if under any different circumstances, unsurvivable. The only way to ensure its end is to ensure that the instruments and means to carry it out are destroyed. We, therefore, believe that America has no choice but to become a party member of the Geneva Convention on the Abolition of Nuclear Armaments as soon as possible.

The last line of the Commission struck something within ALfred. His sobbing and trembling hands relaxed, for Alfred F. Jones knew what he had to do now. 40 years of guilt was too much, and sobbing about it won't undo the past. But he can still write the future, and so he will set it as right as it could be.

He gathered the pages and prepped the document for the President to be televised to the world. In doing so, tonight at 0000 hours CMT, October 28th, 2002, will initiate the order to recall all nuclear forces from active duty, to sign the predication of the Geneva Conventions Prohibition of Nuclear Armaments, and, for a final measure, Alfred would turn himself in before Interpol.

It may not be the most happiest of endings to a historical chapter, but it's the right one. He may not be a hero anymore, but he will still believed to do as the hero ought to do, to bring justice to those who brought wrong, even if it was himself.

With that, he got up as painfully determined as he could, and faced the music as he left his bunker office…

THE END


End file.
